Lemon Raspberry Muffins

My very first Hippo and Nigella post. I'll admit, I didn't select this recipe because it spoke to me more than the others. It was a very practical choice. First, it didn't require self-rising cake flour. Additionally, I had raspberries that needed using. They were good. Not great, not I can't wait until I make these again. Just good. I think they need more lemon. Maybe a lemon glaze? They're definitely worth experimenting with. And for the raspberry haters out there, you might consider blueberries instead. Also, this is the very first time I used my silcone baking cups. They are reusable, and they don't take half your muffin with them when you peel them off. What's not to like?

LEMON RASPBERRY MUFFINS
adapted from How to Be a Domestic Goddess

INGREDIENTS:
1/4 C butter, melted and cooled
1 1/3 C all purpose flour
2 t baking powder
1/2 t baking soda
1/3 C sugar
1/4 t salt
juice and zest of 2-3 lemons - Nigella only called for one. From her directions, it seems clear she's expecting you to have about a half cup of lemon juice. Maybe she just has better lemons than I do, but I had slightly less than a quarter cup of juice from one lemon. I used another lemon too and still didn't have a half cup of juice. I'd really make sure I was getting that half cup.
1/2 C milk
1 large egg
1 C ish of raspberries - You don't need to be precise with the berries, a smidge under or over will hurt no one.

DIRECTIONS:
Preheat the oven to 400 F. Stir together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, sugar, salt and zest. Right here, I had a problem. You need to make sure you wash your lemons well when you use the zest, because the skin is where all the pesticides and gross things you don't want to eat are concentrated, but also, it's where all the lemony flavor is. Make sure you dry your lemons thoroughly before zesting, and maybe even let your zest dry before adding it to the flour mixture, because otherwise, the zest bits will want to clump and no one wants one bite of all zest and a pan of muffins that are less lemony right? Okay. Combine your lemon juice and milk. The juice will curdle the milk, that's okay. Beat in the egg and the melted butter. Add the liquids to the dry ingredients and stir until just combined. Fold in the raspberries. Raspberries are very delicate and will break if treated roughly. Unless you want your muffins to be all pink, go slowly and gently. Pour info muffin cups and bake for about 25 minutes. Cool in pan for 5 minutes, then transfer to a baking rack to cool for 10-15 minutes. For those who want to experiment, and maybe confirm this as a dessert rather than breakfast product, you might consider a lemon glaze of 1/3 C sugar and 1/3 C lemon juice heated and stirred until clear. You would pour this over the muffins while still hot so they absorb the glaze.

Fall Preview

Summer is coming to a close, but sadly, no one has mentioned this to the weather, which seems to have something to prove after the slow start with those temperate days in June. This past week has been brutally hot on the East Coast with oppressive humidity. The kind of air that closes in on you, sits on your skin and slowly smothers you. The kind of summer day where you just want to shout Come On, Rain.

So it was pretty ridiculous dedicated of me to whip up something that required having the oven at 425 degrees in my unairconditioned kitchen. But the thing is, I had leftover ricotta that needed using up, and for whatever reason the only thing I could think to do was make calzones.
I know, I even have a recipe for Lemon Ricotta Pancakes. But once I got the calzone idea in my head, I couldn't let go. Luckily they were delicious, and I made enough to have leftovers tucked away in the freezer for when fall actually arrives.

SPINACH AND ARTICHOKE CALZONE
adapted from Rachael Ray's 30 minute meals 2

2 C ricotta cheese (I use part skim)
pinch nutmeg
black pepper
1/2 C Parmagiano Reggiano
1 package frozen chopped spinach, defrosted and squeezed dry
1 package frozen artichoke hearts, defrosted (you can use canned, drained if you can't find frozen)
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 large dough - pick up at your local pizza store, most will sell it to you even if they don't have a case showing that they do.
2 C mozzarella cheese, shredded
tomato sauce for dipping.

Preheat your oven to 425 degrees F. Mix the ricotta, nutmeg and black pepper. Add the spinach to the ricotta and mix well. I never like how well the spinach is chopped, so I always run my knife through it a few times before I mix it in. No one likes stringy spinach pieces. Add the minced garlic. Chop your artichoke hearts so that their bite sized (maybe 1" chunks). Mix the artichokes into the ricotta and spinach.

Pizza dough is easiest to work with at room temperature. Divide your dough into quarters and reshape each into a small ball. Work with one ball at a time. Roll out the ball into a circle about 8-10" in diameter. Don't let the dough get too thin, it may break. Cover half the dough with your ricotta mixture. Top that with your cheese. It should look like this:



Then fold over the top, and pinch along the sides to close it. I sort of fold over the bottom edge so it covers the top. Bake for 12-15 minutes or until golden brown.

Garlicky Roast Beans

When I was a little girl, my father used to travel for business. Not all the time, but sometimes. When he went away, my mother would not cook. I don't blame her. She cooked amazing meals whenever he was home, she deserved the break. At night, Daddy would call to check in on us and he'd always ask me if we ate our vegetables. My mother would be standing across from me nodding yes, regardless of what we'd had for dinner. When we hung up, she'd say "tomato sauce is a vegetable" or "the broccoli in the chicken with broccoli counts." I grew up just like my mother. I eat my vegetables. I do. But my husband is the one always checking, always asking, always making sure that I eat them.

All this to say, oh my god, I would eat these beans EVERY night. Without someone checking up on me. I'm also pretty sure that this treatment can be applied to other vegetables and I intend to find out. They are salty and crispy and garlicky, just delicious. I made them with these beans, called romano beans, that I found at the farmer's market. In theory they're available through the end of September, which is good, because as soon as Ryan had tasted one, his main concern was where our next beans were coming from. I'm not exactly sure myself, but we'll find them, oh yes, we'll find them.


GARLICKY ROMANO BEANS
from The Boston Globe

Ingredients:
1 lb romano beans
3 cloves garlic, smashed
3 springs thyme halved
extra virgin olive oil
salt and pepper

Directions:
Preheat oven to 450. I did mine in the toaster oven and only had it at about 425. Toss the beans with the garlic, salt, pepper and olive oil on a large sheet pan. Spread out in a single layer. Cook for 15-20 minutes, until browned, turn them over about halfway through.

The Hippo and Nigella

I am in love with this book. It is so incredibly full of delicious sounding recipes that I am tempted to start at the beginning and simply cook my way through it, skipping only Flora's Famous Zucchini Cake on page 18, because I detest zucchini. It could be my very own version of Julie and Julia, only it would be The Hippo and Nigella. I haven't actually made any thing from it yet (for many reasons including but not limited to, a lack of self-rising cake flour, a husband who had surgery on a bicep tendon and can only use one arm forcing me to devise more and more menus that do not require cutting, sheer summer induced laziness). Nigella is kind enough to provide several variations on each recipe to please those of us who always want to tinker with a perfectly well-tested recipe. Also, she is a delight to read. I've never seen any of her cooking programs, so this is my only Nigella exposure, but anyone who points out that her cake stuck to the pan a bit and you can just cover up any imperfections with extra confectioner's sugar is my kind of chef. Anyway. Go out. Get yourself a copy. Grab some self-rising cake flour and we'll meet back here. Okay?

For Catching Bears of Very Little Brain

These delicious honey chocolate crisps are possibly exactly what Winnie the Pooh would like if invited to tea. They are chewy, sweet without being too cloying and have just the right amount of chocolate. Elegant enough for adult parties, but simple enough to be a smackerel for any small person's tea party you might need to organize. But beware, you're likely to find you have to share, with friends, housemates, or small yellow bears.


CHOCOLATE HONEY CRISPS
from Donna Hay's Off the Shelf cookbook

INGREDIENTS:
For the cookies:
1 stick butter
1 cup honey
1 t baking soda
2 cups flour
3/4 cup superfine sugar (turn regular sugar into superfine by putting through your food processor)

For the topping:
1/3 C cream (I used heavy cream)
8 oz (approximately 1.5 C?) chocolate (Donna Hay says milk chocolate, I used semisweet chips, with 2 t sugar to sweeten it. I have no scale and using the chips needed a cup equivalent, I had more than enough topping).

DIRECTIONS:
Preheat the oven to 350 F. On the stovetop, heat up the butter and honey - this goes a bit better if you've sliced your butter, it melts faster than if you drop a whole stick in. Don't let it get too hot. When it's all melted together, add the baking soda. It will make it all carmely colored and foamy. Set aside.

In a large mixing bowl combine your flour and sugar. Mix well. When the butter/honey mixture is ready and slightly cooled, pour it into you flour and sugar. This can be done mixing by hand, but it is a pretty stiff dough, so you'll get some exercise. The dough should be smooth and shiny. Use a tablespoon to measure out small balls of the dough. Roll the balls between your hands to make them smooth. The smoother the ball, the rounder the finished cookie. Place them on lined cookie sheets - I tried both parchment paper and foil and the parchment was a million times easier to get the cookies off. Bake 10-12 minutes or until golden brown. This is a very, very chewy cookie, so don't overbake. Allow the cookies to cool while you mix up the chocolate topping. In a small saucepan over low heat, add the cream and chocolate. Stir until the chocolate is melted and smooth. Allow to cool slightly. Place a teaspoon worth of chocolate in the center of each cookie.

My chocolate did not harden completely so these are not easy to store. Maybe it's just the heat. Oh well, I guess you'll just have to eat them quickly!

Shrimp with Orzo

At some point, I fully expect the reader(s) of this blog to turn on me and insist I cook something that was not initially from an Ina Garten/Barefoot Contessa cookbook. I sincerely hope that you can bear with me for at least one more recipe though, because this is so delicious, and despite its use of the oven, is pretty quick and painless to make even in the hot summer. You can make it ahead, so if you live somewhere that has cooler mornings, just whip it up and pop it in the fridge until dinner. Roasting gives the shrimp a great flavor, the lemon and olive oil dressing is refreshing and the creamy feta works so well with the crunch of the cucumbers. This recipe does use raw red onion, which I know not everyone can eat. If someone you know is anti-raw onion, just saute red onion in a smidge of olive oil until it's lost its bite. The recipe won't suffer that much.


SHRIMP WITH ORZO
modified slightly from Barefoot Contessa at home (really wonderful cookbook, you should buy it).

INGREDIENTS
1 lb shrimp (peeled and deveined)
1/2 lb orzo
1/4 c red onion minced
1 small cucumber, seeded and chopped
1/4 c extra virgin olive oil (plus more for drizzling)
1/4 c lemon juice
1/4 c dill
4-5 oz feta crumbled
salt and pepper

DIRECTIONS:
Preheat your oven to 400 degrees. Put a pot of water on the stove, on high. Bring it to a boil. Cook the orzo according to the package (mine said 8 minutes). When done, remove and drain. Put in a large bowl. Whisk together the lemon juice and olive oil, add 2 t salt and 1 t pepper and set aside so the orzo can absorb the dressing.

Spread your shrimp out in a single layer on a cookie sheet (one with an edge helps because they'll give off juices). Drizzle your shrimp with olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Put in the oven. Roast for 6 minutes, flipping them when they're half way through.

While the shrimp are cooking prepare your onion, cucumber and dill. Add the onion, cucumber and dill to the orzo and mix. When the shrimp are done, add them too. Crumble the feta over the pasta and then mix again until everything is incorporated. Set aside to allow the flavors to blend. Ina says at least an hour, but I don't usually have that kind of time. Of course, you can always make it the day before, pop it in the fridge and take it out before you're ready to serve. Let it get back to room temperature though, don't serve it freezing cold.

Salmon with Asian Noodles

True confession time - I don't love eating fish. I love mussels, clams, crab, lobster, all manner of shrimp, crawfish and langoustine, but fish is not my favorite. Ryan loves fish, and so sometimes because I love him, and I know it's good for me, I'll make fish. This salmon is so good, that the first time I made it, I wanted to make it again almost immediately. A very good sign indeed.

SALMON WITH ASIAN NOODLES
Ingredients:
6 T tamari
1 inch piece of ginger, grated
2 dried thai chilis
juice of 1 lime
1 lb salmon (make an effort to get a piece that is as even in thickness as possible, it will make it easier to cook)
snap peas
shitake mushrooms
1-2 carrots julienned
3 cloves garlic, minced
2 t brown sugar
1/4 c white wine or vermouth
1 T mirin
lo mein noodles (I used between 1/4 and 1/3 of the package)
2-3 T oil (peanut is good, veggie is fine)

DIRECTIONS:
Warning, this is not the easiest recipe, partially due to my own half-ass recipe writing. It would help if you know how to cook fish and vegetables. Okay let's get started.
1. Marinade - Mix 6 T tamari, grated ginger, chili and lime juice in a baking dish or pie plate large enough to accomodate your salmon. Marinate the salmon for 5 minutes on each size.
2. Veggies for the noodles - feel free to use any kind you like! I used snap peas, carrots and shitakes. Just trim the snap peas and slice the shitakes. The carrots you could grate with a mandolin or julienne if you're up to the knife work. The snap peas you'll want to steam quickly either in your microwave or in a small pot, using a steamer for 2-3 minutes. Set aside the cooked snap peas and the cut carrots and mushrooms.
3. Put on the water for your noodles, it will take a while to boil.
4. While waiting for the water to boil, cook your salmon. RESERVE THE MARINADE! In a frying pan, add a T of the oil and swirl so the bottom is covered. Put the salmon on skin side up. Cook for 3-5 minutes on each side depending on the thickness of the fish. The fish should no longer be as glossy, it should be more opaque. Just keep an eye on it. When it's done, set it aside.
5. Wipe out the fish pan and throw in another T of oil and maybe 2 T of water. Add your garlic, shitakes, carrots. Cook, covered, on low to medium for 3-4 minutes.
6. About the same time as you start your veggies, start your lo mein noodles. They'll only take about 3 minutes, read your package.
7. When the noodles are cooked, drain and set aside.
8. When your mushrooms have given off their liquid and the carrots are tender, add the cooked snap peas. Add 2 t brown sugar and 1 T of mirin to the marinade you used for the salmon. Mix it up and then add to your veggies. Then add the 1/4 C of white wine or vermouth and raise to a boil. Boil for 1-2 minutes. Add your lo mein noodles to your veggies and sauce. If they are sticking together, gently use a pair of tongs and sort of swirl them around in a circular motion, this should loosen them a bit as they take in the sauce. When the noodles are fully coated, you're ready to serve.
9. Plate the noodles and top with a portion of salmon.

Lobstah

There's something about the word lobster that calls for a Boston accent. There are words like that, some phrases, that I just prefer in Bostonese - lobster, beer here - they just sound better in Boston. But this post is NOT another "I wish I still lived in Boston" rant. Oh no. This is a tribute to the drive. If I lived in Boston, I would not have a reason to be driving the Connecticut coastline. And if I did not have a seemingly endless stretch of Connecticut coastline in between the hell that is the Jersey turnpike, the crazy winding parkways of New York and the relief of reentry into Rhode Island toward points north, I would not know, that hidden in a teensy-tinesy town called Noank is the best Lobstah sandwich ever at a place called Abbott's.
Abbott's is for serious people. Getting there involves following a veritable scavenger hunt of signs, the word Abbott's plus an arrow written in on poles and the backs of stop signs. Each year they hold a contest to see who is the first to line up when they open for the season. This year the winning party arrived at 2am!! I arrived right at opening for the day, on a cloudy weekday, and was rewarded with no line between me and my lobster.When you only get to visit a restaurant once a year, there is no room for error or experimentation. You go directly to the best - the hot lobster roll, butter on the side. Do you think you could handle a close-up without trying to nibble your monitor?

Just a quarter pound of fresh lobster meat, no filler, no mayonnaise, no work, just all the lobstery goodness you could imagine in one package. And yes, I had one for lunch and ordered two to go so that Ryan and I could have them for dinner.

Know Thy Enemy

I know, it looks harmless enough. Welcoming teakettle, sweet strawberry plaque, glossy black surface. Oh how my grandmother adores that sleek, glossy, easy to wipe down surface.

DO NOT BE TAKEN IN.

This stove is the enemy. I hate that when you turn off the heat, it's still really hot on the burner, so that you actually have to completely remove your pot or pan from the burner. I hate that raising or lowering the temperature does not produce immediate results. I hate that you have to rely on an indicator light to know if the stove is on. I like to know if my stove is on. Oh this stove is pretty and shiny and new. But I am truly devoted to a gas stove. I love watching the flame flicker and lick the bottom of a pot waiting to boil, the way the flame just barely glows blue on the lowest setting. Knowing that I can see as well as feel what my stove is doing. And yes, an ancient model like the one in my tiny apartment kitchen may require some extra care. There's the constant relighting of the pilot light for one. And it certainly does not have an easy to wipe down surface. As I reach between the pan and the hot burner grates to retrieve an errant pasta shell or runaway mushroom, I am reminded of the game operation, where you carefully remove the patient's insides without setting off an alarm; although the stakes are somewhat higher when I play with a hot burner. But cooking is a hands on business, a messy business, and I'd rather my stove were with me on this.

Vacation and Local Flavor

Happy Almost 4th of July!! I will not be cooking this year. Just relaxing on the deck with my feet up. Believe it or not, this incredible view is from my in-law's place in Rhode Island. Tomorrow, we'll go out on their boat, Ragtime. Then Sunday I head to Cape Cod for a few more days to visit my grandmother.

Ragtime

Although it's not likely I'll find myself in the kitchen while I'm away, I'll try to bring you some food related goodness. Today, our grocery trip turned up a New England treat, a roll of all chocolate Necco wafers. Standard Necco wafers come in a variety of fruit related flavors. Chocolate Neccos are far more rare.

Necco wafers have a fascinating slightly chalky texture and chocolate Neccos are far closer in flavor to some type of chocolate malted product (like Whoppers) than anything actually chocolate. In many ways, Neccos are something I like more for the sheer New Englandness of their existance than for their actual taste. But you'd have to try for yourself.